Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering

by Xav de Matos on Dec 4th 2009 5:30PM

Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho thinks developers are pampering players, making games much easier now than in previous generations. "It goes back to that learning mechanism of "Well, I tried this – it didn't work. I'm going to try something different." And I think that's going to be something in Mass Effect 2, we don't want it to be a cakewalk, you want a challenge," he told Video Games Daily.

Using the brutally difficult From Software title Demon's Souls as an example, Cho says hardcore players today want to earn progress in games. "I think gamers want a more sophisticated game, they don't want a breezy game where you see all the cinematics and just put in your hours and play it through." According to Cho, Mass Effect 2 aims to give players a healthy dose of challenge and sophistication when it launches early next year. We're all for hard work and challenge, but our idea of sophistication doesn't include the ancient mechanic of trial and error.

Source

Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, mass-effect-2, Microsoft, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (75)

I miss the days of "limited continues" and "lives".

I thought you couldn't die anyways?

Yeah, but a lot of today's modern games don't fit that very well.

There are some tough challenges, but they aren't forced down your throat. Take any of the highest difficulties of your action game, and they require fast aim, smart movement, and some luck in order to get through.

Yet, on the same token, we don't get those challenging puzzles and tasks we used to. I miss the platforming days before the last generation spawned. Those games provided a fun challenge or two.

Achievements kind of fill this gap, on occasions, but sometimes they can be way ridiculous or just plain simple.

But, I wouldn't mind a game with lives and/or continues again in this generation. The only game that comes to mind at the moment is Devil May Cry 4. I'm sure there are more, I just, don't have them sadly. =(

the thing is, back in the day, there were ALWAYS patterns, so anyone could get through if they got the pattern down. now, there are rarely ever patterns (except platformers obviously) because of AI that thinks for itself. in veteran on COD, if we had limited lives, pretty much no one would make it through to the end on their own because of the AI that's never in the exact same place or does the same thing, so getting all the way through would require some SERIOUS luck.

I think it still goes both ways. Yea a challenge is great, and gives you a sense of accomplishment, but it also sucks beating your head against the same part of a game for hours making no progress. I hate it when games make me feel like I'm wasting my time.

so you miss the days of battling through a game, getting to a certain point, using all your lives and continues, and having to start completely over at the beginning, finally getting to that same point again, using all your lives and continues, and having to start completely over at the beginning again...i blame ninja gaiden and rygar on the NES for this rant.

Let there be difficulty levels.

I'm not a great gamer, when I play a game I want to play it through and enjoy it.

I suck at CoD games and on the harder difficulties, I wanted to take my controller and throw it through a window.

I don't want to feel that way when I play a game.

Achievements are fantastic so let those be big numbers for getting through on the harder difficulties, but don't forget that there are casual and aging gamers that still want to play games like this, which are appealing to the casual and hardcore market.

I played through the first ME more times than I'd like to admit, but if it was a punshing difficulty from the get-go, I don't know if I'd have enjoyed it as much.

Dear Mass Effect, please fix the autosave system, OR add an autosave button. Sometimes I go hours without remembering to save which takes like 4 seconds to do, but honestly, please just autosave more regularly, like after every battle?

I like challenge and sophistication. I've been playing mario and luigi 3 and that game not only tells you how to do everything, but tells you about 4 times before they even let you try it. It's making the game a total snoozefest.

So bring on the challenge in ME2!

Mario & Luigi Bowser's Story on the DS? I just bought it but haven't played it too much, but the early going they definitely beat you over the head with how to play. I remember from 2 that once you get deeper into it the battles get pretty cool, I really like the combat mechanics. The writing in those games is hilarious.

Yeah the latest DS one. It apparently doesn't change ever, cause i'm 10 hours in and everytime I do something new they make sure I understand what to do...to the point of aggravation.

The game itself is really easy too, I don't think I've even lost 1 brother in battle yet let alone a complete game over.

I don't expect mass effect 2 to be "hard", but if it's even a little bit of a challenge then I will be satisfied.

There are probably little kids who play the game too so it's there to help them out.

Even so you should have the option to turn them off.

No argument there. Shit is faaaar too easy these days.

Only if you remember your Dulcolax, otherwise it can quite literally be a pain in the ass.

No complaints here. Everything about this game looks better than the first.

Oh my, voted down for posting, you Joystiqer's really have lost it...

Especially since my comment volume had been dropping before the downvotes...

Meh, don't really care. I'm still going to keep posting.

You haven't heard about the 'Anti-Bradwart Force'?
Irony at its best :)

Mass Effect 1 was already good and yes this one looks even better.

It still won't be better than Red Dead Redemption but it's a solid GOTY runner-up contender.

I know I'm feeding the trolls, but; if you're supposed to be "anti-whatever" I'd assume you wouldn't post in the same thread, or agree with the OP...

Internet, have you los' yo' damn mind?

You all need a hobby... I heard playing video games is a cool one these days.

Our early attempts at a thwarting the trolls went through several preparations. Preparations A through G were a complete failure. But now, ladies and gentlemen, we finally have a working method to annoy them, which we shall call... Preparation H.

And yes Darth, on the whole Preparation H feels good.

I'm assuming this Filthy guy said something relevant? All I'm getting is "Derp de derp derp derp de derpderp."...I don't know why ;)

Well Darth I'm not all that familar with Javascript, otherwise I'd try to make a script to auto level your hearts. One problem is that the voting comes before the user ID, so I can't just modify the kill filter to replace the end action (comment replacement) with the up-vote action.

Even worse, I'd have to also check to see if the comment had two hearts or less. If it auto up votes when you're already at two hearts, that wouldn't really be all that fair to the others.

No, don't bother. I'm hoping it'll stop eventually.

Especially since it's almost all one guy running a bunch of sockpuppet accounts.

Just because I hate the guy and think he needs to stop posting every waking minute of his life doesn't mean I can't agree with him on a subject. It just means I vote him down whenever I see him.

I do think it's hilarious how he thinks we're all one person, though. The fact that more than one person hates him is just completely unfathomable to him.

That hardly seems like a reasonable excuse to hate somebody. This isn't a popularity contest, there's really no reason to downvote somebody just because you don't like them.

It is not helping that every time it happens, someone stops to comment on it. All you are doing is encouraging. Ignore it, and move on with your lives.

@Dreaded Fear

The hypocrisy is fucking palpable. Good job.

This sounds great. I just hope this isn't industry speak for "we've made a really short game, so it's gonna be really difficult to make a longer playing experience.

It was recently announced that the game will be split onto two DVDs so I wouldn't worry about that

If Dragon Age is any indication, I highly doubt it.

I don't like how Call of Duty or Gears use the regenerating health system. It doesn't make any sense and it neglects to punish sloppy play. At least it makes sense in Halo, given the time setting and the type of soldier you are. But it was cooler in Halo 1 when you had limited health with a replenishing shield.

The last game I can think of that really challenged me was Braid

There aren't many health systems that do make sense. How can you measure how healthy you are with just one number?

If anything the system that Halo, et al, uses is the most realistic. People try to quantify how healthy they are in sports all the time, "I'm about 80% good to go"... But really, health in some sort of combat situation would be more binary: "I can kill everyone and get the hell out of here," or "dead."

Having regenerating health makes games more accessible, it may be rewarding sloppy playing but that's what keeping the games industry afloat, i.e. I don't think sales would be as high if games were as difficult as before.

Additionally, why all this talk about "realism". It sure as hell isn't realistic for one person to blow through an entire base or be able to carry an entire army's worth of guns, ammo and other equipment while doing so, so I think we can suspend our disbelief a bit more.

I know I probably wouldn't be playing games as much if they were as difficult as they were before, I'm just not that good a gamer. Of course there's a limit to how easy a game should be.

@ytilanigiroon

That's sports. They aren't judging how much life they have left, they aren't saying they're 80% alive. At worst, they're at 0 and they have to sit out, which is far from dying. I know army squads rate their combat effectiveness, but that's for the whole group, and takes a lot of other things into account beyond their individual wellness.

@finnith

Arguing the realism of events within these games is missing point. Players still like to feel like they're actually there, and more realistic combat and health systems can go a long way to augmenting the immersion. Also, none of the games he mentioned allow you to carry an entire arsenal, so that point is moot.

Dear god this game is going to be the most sublime crack. I just peed myself thinking about it. Rare nowadays that I'll sit down for 3, 4, or 5 hour play sessions but I'm sure I will with this.

I wonder what the challenge will be, besides bumping up enemy stats and maybe tactics AI.

It can be kinda hard to make a shooter-style game hard without just making the enemies tougher than you. But then, if there's enough enemy variety and they act pretty smart, then that's not really a complaint for me.

ME2, don't disappoint me!

Who am I kidding? Hard or easy, I'll still love this damn game.

In Soviet Russia, damn game loves you!

This makes me so happy.

Infinity Ward, Epic, and Bungie can go fuck themselves.

BRB, gonna go play some Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War, and Halo 3. :P

(p.s. Dragon Age made me do something I hadn't done in years. Actually draw a diagram on a piece of paper for a puzzle in the game. That felt so good.)

lol, this game is going to be hated
"its too hard", they will cry, "Give me a fun game" they will shout, their calls will be heard and this game will flop

The words 'BioWare' and 'flop' do not go in the same sentence...

The words 'BioWare' and 'Mainstream' do not go in the same sentence...

dude, none of your comments that i've read so far make sense.

Bioware makes games that are very accessible to any gamer.

The multi-million selling Baldurs Gate, KotOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect and (hopefully) Dragon Age disagree with you.

barely two million
and according to the GTA thread that means it aint so great

Didn't Bioware make that Sonic RPG that didn't do so well? Yeeeeaaaa.

@ Captain

I'm all for upping the challenge in games, but I don't miss the limited lives and continues. You can make a game hard without making you reset your progress if you mess up too often. I think challenge should be in gameplay, not in game mechanic. Set lives doesn't make playing the actual game harder, it just makes it harder to progress in it. Specifically in DMC4, set continues didn't make Bosses harder, it just made you resent them more.

Tl;dr I can't wait for Mass Effect 2 =D. This and God of War 3 are my must-haves for 2010.

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Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering

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